Category: Kink: practical

So, it’s a thing I know about myself that I have a very bad memory for the reality of pain. Like I noted all the way back here, I cannot remember pain I have felt when I am not feeling it. Among other things, this means that being hit with any sort of severity tends to produce an ‘ow, this hurts way more than I could hold in my mind!’ effect. In a pretty interesting experience in a scene I had yesterday with Spiral, I got to observe this effect in real time.

One of the implements I own to get hit with, and pretty much the most severe one I have, is a glowstick. I also have a rubber paddle, which is about second in severity.

In this scene, I’d asked to start by getting straight out hit very hard maybe 10 times with something, and requested these two implements, paddle first, as the somethings. It took only a fraction of the paddle part (which very much produced the above mentioned effect) for me to decide that the glowstick part would be way too much for me and we shouldn’t do it after all.

Then, at nine and with one left to go, we had to take a break for external reasons. And it took literally minutes of the break before I was right back to thinking I did totally want to do the glowstick afterwards.

Then the break finished and number 10 promptly swung me the other way again.

(In the end, I did decide to get hit with the glowstick, but not in the ‘very hard 10 times’ way. It was still entirely sufficient for me to feel incredibly bad for all the characters in any story I’ve read or written who had a switch used on them (which I imagine is similar). This ends up being further demonstration of the memory effect, because it’s now a day later, and while I remember having that feeling/thought thread, I absolutely can’t recapture it. I’m also trying to figure out if there’s a way in which I can obtain a switch, because as it turns out the glowstick, being curved and therefore hard to aim, can’t actually be swung that hard, and I imagine something straight would fix that problem, so that I could try out the 10 thing more properly. Which I will clearly stop thinking is a good idea as soon as I actually try it, but knowing that doesn’t change things for my brain right now.

I don’t know if this is masochism, the bodily mechanism that’ll later help me with childbirth meanwhile working on this, something that’s actually pretty common and I just haven’t read about it, or something else.

For me, counting (while being hit with something, that is) is one of the kinks that is both an actionable kink, and a narrative kink for a somewhat more limited set of dynamics. Narratively, I like it both when the principal is counting and when the constrict is, actionably I’ve only tried the latter but suspect I would like the former too.

Basic counting is very straightforward – 1, 2, 3, etc – and is definitely something I enjoy. However, sometimes variations are fun and/or interesting too. So, here are a few that I’ve encountered:

Counting with an honorific. “One, ma’am, two, ma’am”, etc.

Saying thank you after each number.

Asking for the next one.

Counting in another language. For instance, in a story I read, someone in trouble in a Latin class had to count in Latin. Alternating languages would make for an interesting exercise in focus, also.

Repeating a phrase, either instead of the number, or together with it. Phrases about the punishment (“I must strive to be more respectful”), about the principal (“The Commander is always right”), and about the constrict (“I am a worthless fool”) are common. This can also be paired with an honorific.

Reciting people. In one story I read, the constrict had to name someone they’d hurt with their actions with every strike, making this an emotional exercise as well. In another story, the principal had a list of names, and read one before each strike.

Reciting poetry or something similar. This could either have to do with the punishment, the dynamic, etc, in which case it can serve a similar purpose as repeating a phrase while also requiting more focus, or not, in which case it is just a focus exercise.